Definition of "qu"

qu

noun
plural qus
1. (China) An administrative subdivision of China roughly equivalent to districts, distinguished from the more rural "counties" (xian).
  Quotations
  […] the Party committee of Peiyuanmen commune of Lienhu ch'u in Sian municipality has since the year before last set up outside-school cultural activity centers in the commune headquarters and in various neighborhood committees.]
  , numbers 5308-5345, page 52
  At the time of the elections (1980) Nanjing was subdivided into three suburban counties (xian) and nine urban districts (qu).
  1990, Barrett L. McCormick, “Elections to Local People's Congresses”, in Political Reform in Post-Mao China: Democracy and Bureaucracy in a Leninist State‎, University of California Press, page 138
  As we have seen, the people of Guide/Shangqiu have traced the history of their city back well before the Ming and especially to the Han period. The People's Republic has recognized that heritage by naming the district subordinate to Shangqiu city the Liangyuan qu (Liang Garden District) and the district subordinate to Guide the Suiyang qu (Suiyang District) (see Map 3).
  2009, Roger Des Forges, “Tales of Three City Walls in China's Central Plain”, in Chinese Walls in Time and Space: A Multidisciplinary Perspective, pages 60–61